Wednesday, December 14, 2016

It's magical...and while I have many book projects and journals in the works, there comes a time to rest and breathe!

For me it is hard when I have this wonderful collection of gorgeous coffee and tea stained papers just calling my name, begging to be included in one of my creations.

The stash has grown since this photo was taken, and it is filling an entire wooden box that smells so good with the wonderful coffee scent, and layered between the papers is palo santo wood sticks and cut cedar wood circles. It smells AB FAB!

Sunday, December 4, 2016

The two winners of a pair of these fabulous salvaged bookcovers, and a wonderful vintage cellophane postal envelope, full of paper ephemera to start your own Journal Journey...are....

Bettsi Ledesma and Deborah Weber!!!Thank you for stopping by to take a look at my"longoverdue/book renewals"... and for popping in on my art friends at Arty Tea Party. More journals coming out soon...and wait until you see my new paper stash...it is to swoooon over!Here's a sneak peak...Aloha!

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

I have included an inked embossed sheet under the ribbon tie just for fun.

Delicious Autumn leaves always stop me in my tracks, so I had to add one here. There's also a giant mighty oak leaf enclosed!

So much more in this one...Lots of pockets and tags and plenty of journaling space. I think this one is my all-time fave. At least for now...until it goes, or I make another all-time fave...ya'll know what I mean!

Now for a giveaway!!!

If you would like a pair of these lovely bookends, just leave me a comment here...you can follow if you like...and then visit my friends at the Arty Tea Party and leave a comment there, too! I will pick 2 winners to receive a pair of bookcovers and a postal envie full of ephemera...lots of papers, tags, vintage postage stamps and so much more!

Drawing for the giveaway will be Thursday Dec. 1st!

Glad you stopped by...and remember, there is always something to be thankful for...so do give thanks!

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

I love used book sales...the best place to score wonderful discarded books to turn into Journals. I always scoop up the Readers Digest Condensed books for their amazing covers.

Recovered Book Covers

Now, by recovered, I mean "salvaged" from the discards and on the way to the recycling bin, not covered again or covered over.

And here's just a sneak peak at some of the pages enclosed. I actually salvage the end papers and use some of the book text, too.

A revamped library pocket full of tags and such!

Lots of spaces in here to personalize and make it your own. Blank pages, pockets, tags, and a postal envie full of ephemera!

Yes, even the kids guitar string packs make a neat place to journal!

A little postal pocket full of goodies!

So much more in this wonderful journal. I love them, I love making them. Some are going up for sale to the Bethel Woods Holiday Market with my Arty Tea Party friends...others will go to my etsy shop and any leftovers will be given as gifts.

Here's the start of another one! Will post a sneak peak at this one. This one has taken on a life of its own! I love it!

And since I already had the scraps out from the last two projects, (oh yeah, creative chaos is my middle name) I just kept on going. Here are some of the hang tags that she will be using on her little gift baskets!

I love making these. Using up all those scraps helps to clean up the space. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

This is a fabulous ATC that I just received as a gift from my friend, Kitty, and it screamed at me to be used in a project. And since I had already made this mini hang tag, I though they would look really great together!

I'm keeping the ATC, but I wanted to show you this cool collaboration of pieces. The mini tag will go on a basket.

Now this little beauty is also a collaborative effort, because my friend, Andrea, gave me some of her paper beads to play with. And, I just love them!

And this one is going to a young friend of mine, who just wants everyone in the world to BE KIND! She's so sweet!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

And as the winner of their last MIXED MEDIA MOODS BOARD CHALLENGE, I felt a sense of loyalty to participate in this one. And this one, really did scream at me because of the old vintage typewriter, of which I have 2. Something about typing on them is very invigorating, and that old text from them on some vintage paper is fabulous. And I also collect old keys and vintage crochet doilies. Oh and of course, old books with those weathered pages, well WHO COULD RESIST?

But since I waited until the last minute to git er done, I went for a quick tag-size piece,
and a mini green leather book/journal.

This is my tag cut from a piece of grasscloth wallpaper, and covered with a bit of paint clean up cloth.

Added some wool roving, a scrap of grasscloth and a vintage fabric button, pinned on a bit of twine, and voila...a wonderfully textured tag.

The back shows all that great texture, with a ginkgo leaf from a friend's tree. If you look closely above the tag, you'll see my mini vintage typewriter pencil sharpener. Just had to include it here with the others.

This mini book/journal (1-1/2" x 2-1/2") has a soft leather sage green cover, and a swatch from an upholstery fabric book for the inside cover. The pages are made from the paper torn from a corrugated box, and I'll use that exposed corrugation for another project very soon!

with a little fold out page, I picked a sage leaf from my herb garden to add

a Captain green paint chip, pages are all tied up with waxed cotton thread, with a bit of elastic to close around an old red shoe button...tucked in feather!

I just loved this Mixed Media Mood Board, because it made me drag out my old typewriters.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Back in April of 2013, my art friends and I began an art journal book swap...hop. The idea was to snag a discarded book from the library book sale, alter the cover, make it your own, then pass it in round-robin fashion to each member. Each person is to add their own art flair and pass it on. Well, since we are a lackadaisical group of talented chics, and some of us still have to work for a living...this book swap hop has taken years to complete.

ALAS...I have FINALLY had my LONG OVERDUE BOOK RETURNED TO ME!

This is my cover, painted, with fabric square, vintage button, yarn scrap..I left part of the title words ART and BY...

This inside cover page has a library pocket with library card for each member to sign in when they received the book, and sign out when they pass it on. I also left the original owners name "BETTY HARRIS" in this discarded book, thinking that she would enjoy the ride and artful companionship along the round-robin route.

I left the title page as is...thought it was an appropriate addition to an art journal hop...I am guessing that Betty Harris was an art teacher.

Oh my...this was my page that I totally forgot about since April of 2013. And I plan on re-vamping this baby. What was I thinking? Ha, I even put in a little sticker...HAWAII or bust! And since I went to Honolulu to see the fam in 2014, guess I can cover that up, too! But there is a real dried red zinnia flower from my garden underneath my wooden pineapple. Yeah, this page needs a makeover!

This lovely spread is from a very talented painter, Victoria. I wish I had this talent. Fine details here.

Wow, I guess she was the first one to have it...way back in 2013!!!

Next up is Alicia's 2 page spread. She always has something to do with her endless supply of sheet music. And how fitting it is that my ukulele club has just added this little ditty to our repertoire. Thank you, Alicia for joining our red, red, round-robin.

This spread is from Andrea with lots of fabric and lace, and wonderful textures. And oh, those wonderful pineapples...Love this! And hey, I spy those rooster postage stamps!!!

Thank you Andrea for all of your fiber goodness!

Lucy was going for LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! Lovely, Lucy! Love is all there is!

Now Victorian "Rosebud" Sandy, always puts a flourish on her work.
Paints, and stamps, and of course ribbon and lace.

Next up is Judie, who just happens to have beach sand and shells hanging around to add to her work.
With a lovely mirror to capture the sunshine...she wonders where I am in this landscape.
Ha...I'm off to gather beach glass...or drinking a cocktail with an umbrella somewhere!

And check out the stained glass ukulele that Judie added to her page...
dangling along the bottom edge with all the other bead, button, bauble additions! Love this!

And our Kitty Kat has that ALOHA SPIRIT going on here...
and I spy those ALOHA postage stamps! Oh, I'm there!

Now I wish you could smell these pages from Dear Nina of Happy Herbs Soap.
With a backdrop of large dried tobacco leaves, to the edgework of dried patchouli leaves, she made a rope heart filled with dried lavender buds. After all these years, it still smells AB FAB!

At Two Crow Cottage...

Thanks to all for adding to my book...I will be re-doing my own page though.

And I have a couple blanks so that I can continue the art journaling...trying out a few new techniques that I learned from Mixed Media Jenn and Dee Dee Catron